PhD Program in Neuroscience

The Ph.D. in Neuroscience is an inter-departmental program that
is entered from a participating Department. The program has a "track"
structure, with each track tailored to the needs of students in
particular subdisciplines. Currently there are tracks in: a) Behavioral
Genetics, b) Behavioral Neuroscience, c) Clinical Neuroscience,
d) Cognitive Neuroscience, e) Integrative Physiology, f) Molecular,
Cellular, and Developmental Neuroscience, g) Social Neuroscience
and h) Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences.

All students in Neuroscience are required to complete a set of
common core courses, with the remaining courses being specific to
each track. The details of the course requirements as well as the
nature of the Comprehensive Examination and Thesis can be found
by going to the Neuroscience Requirements
page. There are currently 75 participating faculty members and
new tracks are expected to be added.

How to apply?

Students apply for admission to one of the participating Departments
and their admission to CU Boulder and financial support is determined
by that Department. Once in residence, students are able to enter
the Neuroscience Ph.D. while still maintaining their "home" in the
Department to which they were admitted. Students who complete the
Neuroscience PhD Program receive a single diploma that indicates
a Ph.D. in Neuroscience with specialization in the student's track.

Steps for applying to the Neuroscience PhD Program:

1] Identify a participating Home Department in which you would
like to reside. Remember that students are required to fulfill all
of the PhD requirements of the Home Department in addition to the
Neuroscience PhD requirements.

3] If admitted to one of these participating graduate programs,
you will have the opportunity within your first 2 years of graduate
school to declare your intention to obtain a Neuroscience PhD.

4] One word of caution; not all faculty members within a participating
Department, are participating members of the Neuroscience PhD program.
In order to obtain a Neuroscience PhD, the student's research advisor
must be a participating member of the Neuroscience Program, and
the student's doctoral dissertation project must have a predominant
Neuroscience theme. Thus, we recommend identifying specific Neuroscience
faculty that reside within the desired Home Department during the
application processs, and determining the likelihood, that if admitted
into that Department's graduate program, that one of these faculty
will be available to serve as your research advisor.